Testing Setup:

Comparison Cases:

Cooler Master Storm Trooper

Corsair Carbide 400R

Corsair Graphite 600T

Testing:

For testing I maintained an ambient room temperature of 70°F and used HWMonitor to monitor each component's internal temperature. The idle temperatures were taken after the computer remained on, but with no operating load for an hour. The load tests were taken after a 15 minute period with Kombuster's power supply test active.

As you can see, the sound dampening panels and positioning of the fans do have an impact on the thermal efficiency of the 550D. Hot air is not exhausted out of the case as easily because as it turns out, the foam retains some of the heat. This in turn increases the internal temperature of the case and lowers the thermal efficiency. Still, the results weren't all bad as the increased temperatures were only warmer than the other cases tested by a few degrees Celsius.

Comments

This case seems pretty large for a mid-tower. A whopper in my opinion! It's larger than my previous case, which I thought was quite large. The EATX cable from a Corsair power unit will only just reach!The MB standoffs are copper (a most excellent conductor of electricity) - so why are they covered in black paint? Everything is covered in black paint, including the inner threads, and you can see it flaking off in the screw bags. The MB screws are ugly little things, and all black painted too. Call me old fashioned, but what about static?? ASUS puts blobs of metal around the MB screw holes just so that the motherboard gets a good earth connection. Not much hope with all that paint in the way. Also, there's no convenient bit of bare metal to clip your anti-static lead on to in case of needing to do work on the computer.The standoffs are smaller than standard I think. This opinion is endorsed by noticing that the connections on my ASUS motherboard are jammed to one side of the I/O shield.It could be that this case is a bit of a triumph of style over function. My system seems to be running well though. Cool. With sleek black case. There's no speaker in the case though - so you don't get MB start-up/error bleeps. I think my old Acousticase was quieter, better built, and much cheaper, but not so suitable for running a big rig.

I really like the case but I'd actually go with the 300R due to the price and almost similar features. Actually, I might go with the 300R for my next build. $110+ is too much for me. Even though I really love the look on it.

I like the clean, approach to the front, in what looks like brushed aluminium... doesn't seem to have any room for air intake on the front though, I know there is little opening, but still doesn't seem like enough.

Cable management looks like a breeze to... problem I had was cable length, plus the fact I couldn't really figure out which way to thread cables through the case.

Are the case testing temperatures in °c or °f?

Not sure what the relative temps of the 2600k is, but it seems to perform well, and looks like a nice case. Some people may call it boring but I like boring, sleek cases. Can't stand unnessecary features.